The present invention relates to the field of fluid data sensing, including airborne vehicle instrumentation, more particularly, to sensors for measuring one or more ambient air parameters adjacent an airflow structure such as an airfoil of an aeronautical structure or an airflow structure in a gaseous fluid flow apparatus such as (but not limited to) a forced air convection heating system.
The aviation community has needed ambient air parameter measurements since the advent of instrumented flight. However, prior art sensor technology was typically not able to provide sufficient resolution in a utilitarian form and at an affordable cost for measurement of dynamic pressures associated with air speeds below 40 knots. For this reason, helicopters and V/STOL (vertical/short takeoff and landing) aircraft used active sensing technologies such as radar and laser optical systems with consequent increases in complexity and cost and attendant issues of reliability. In addition, prior art air data sensors characteristically had salient (projecting) profiles with respect to the structural members to which they were attached. The present invention overcomes such shortcomings of the prior art by providing an apparatus capable of measuring temperature and pressure with high resolution regardless of dynamic pressure, in harsh environments and at extreme temperatures while having a streamlined profile integrated with or conforming to the aerodynamic structure on which it is mounted. As used herein, airborne vehicle and aeronautical structure each mean any apparatus intended for passage through air, around which air may be conducted, or through which air is intended to pass, such as aircraft (whether fixed wing or rotary wing), spacecraft, self-powered and un-powered-projectiles (such as missiles and artillery projectiles), and gaseous fluid propulsion machinery (such as turbo-machinery, jet engines, rocket engines, and the like).